Imagine Star Trek designed by Stanley Kubrick and inhabited by a plethora of familiar (or soon to be familiar) British actors, led by three American TV stars. It's a SF show that mixes big imaginative concepts with foam machines and alien babes in tight costumes. It looks amazing, with one of the most iconic spaceships that ever flew across the small screen. And for a while, it was one of the biggest SF series on TV.

The Moon has escaped orbit and gone warping across the galaxy. Each episode the survivors face new aliens and new terrors. The time, the place? Space: 1999!

Space: 1999 ran for 48 episodes across two seasons between 1975 and 1977. Made by ITC and produced by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, although Star Trek producer Fred Freiberger took over day to day running of the second season. Brian Johnson headed the special effects modelwork and would later gain acclaim for The Empire Strikes Back and The Neverending Story.

Very British Futures host Gareth Preston invites nostalgic Ian Taylor and recent fan Kara Dennison to examine one of ITC's biggest undertakings. They'll be taking an especially close look at "Dragon's Domain", "Earthbound" and "The Beta Cloud".

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Seasons greetings! Stingray is the iconic children's television series that captured the imagination of Sixties viewers. Created by the legendary Gerry and Sylvia Andersonthis pioneering show set new standards for their Supermarionation process, as well as being their first in colour.

The series follows the adventures of the crew aboard the futuristic submarine known as Stingray, designed for undersea exploration and defense. Led by the valiant Captain Troy Tempest, his partner Lieutenant George Lee "Phones" Sheridan, and the enigmatic Marina, a mystical undersea woman, the trio works for WASP (the World Aquatic Security Patrol) and embark on daring missions to protect the ocean and humanity from various threats. They regularly battle King Titan, ruler of the Aquaphibians, and his cunning spy X-2-Zero.

Whilst definitely a children's show, Stingray has an unusual depth of character development, largely thanks to the romantic triangle between Troy, Marina, and Atlanta, a fellow WASP officer and daughter of the WASP's leader, Commander Shore. Shore himself had an interesting back story, having been crippled and left hoverchair bound by nameless underwater aliens.

For this special Christmas edition of Very British Futures, regular guest John Isles, and his daughter Amber, join Gareth Preston to watch "A Christmas to Remember", written by Dennis Spooner and directed by Alan Pattillo.

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A fascinating curio from producer Gerry Anderson's peak period, made in between seasons one and two of Space: 1999 and featuring many personnel from that programme.

The spaceship Altares, with a photon drive capable of accelerating it to the speed of light, leaves an Earth-orbiting space station. The Altares crew, two families of trained specialists, journey at light speed to Alpha Centauri, experiencing time-dilation. After launching several satellites to transmit information on the Centauri star system back to Earth, guiding future vessels exploring the star system, the families vote to explore further, but a meteorite strike sends their ship accelerating out of control.

Like the original blueprint of Doctor Who and Pathfinders in Space, Special Treats producer George Heinemann, Century 21 owner Gerry Anderson, and writer Johnny Bryne's intention was combine education with entertainment. In particular, the show illustrated Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Speaking to Starlog magazine in 1979, Heinemann said, “When the teacher wrote E = mc2 on the board, I wanted the young viewer to recall the programme and say, "Yeah, I saw a programme about that. I want to learn more about it."

Starring Brian Blessed, Nick Tate and Joanna Dunham

Written by Johnny Byrne

Directed by Charles Crichton

I was fortunate to be joined by Felicia Baxter, writer, podcaster and former NASA intern, to look back at this unique British production which was originally shown on both NBC and BBC1.

Visit our website for more information links and episodes ⁠westlakefilms.uk/verybritishfutures⁠

Follow the podcast on Twitter ⁠https://twitter.com/FuturesVeryhttps://twitter.com/FuturesVery

Email us at verybritishfuturespodcast@gmail.com

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Find out more about my guest Felicia Baxter at: news.drgator.ufl.edu/2020/02/19/alumni-never-ending-curiosity/

and learn more about her books at: writers.coverfly.com/profile/writer-e7b425c55-87513